"Prime minister John Key has returned from a flying visit to Los Angeles...."

Strewth! He not only walks on water but can fly over thousands of miles? Wow.(Note: The word for "on" is almost identical with "by" and was lost in the translation just as "virgin" just meant back then "a good woman.")

Well, this is a change for Public Address, isn’t it. Last time Hollywood studios extorted tax concessions from the pathetic New Zealand taxpayer (a cool $100m), plus parliamentary legislation removing legal redress from workers in the film industry, Public Address stood squarely behind the studios, in the process condemning a local union that was seeking a collective agreement, and then making extraordinary claims – untrue, unfounded and unchecked – that all the entertainment unions bar Equity were in support. Dean ParkerNZ Writers' Guild

Mr Key said ceding national sovereignty to the American film industry was a small price to pay for a new cycleway which can now be expanded to take donkey carts to become a crucial part of the country’s transport network in the next two decades

Brilliant. Why hadn’t we thought about this before. Perhaps the Wellintonian Elite were prescient in building that Welly Wood sign .

A range of views on these issues have been debated here, generally quite civilly.

I'd also suggest it's possible to be not in favour of a union (based in another country) derailing a huge (and hugely-employing) project at the 11 3/4th hour with a contradictory and muddled contract demand AND be not in favour of our PM handing huge employment (and copyright) concessions and subsidies to a handful of entertainment behemoths based in the USA.

Thank you for posting this. While the country burns, we court Hollywood as the magic bullet? Sorry, they want bottom line about business. Of course I want gains in this area - I am in the biz (though not likely to profit from it). But what about the rest of NZ, the unemployed, those in manufacturing? I would love it to work, but this feels like a razzle-dazzle distraction from our real woes.

I’d say so too Ben. “It’s all in the grooves” or at least the thousands of PA “Hobbit” posts, that might make a fascinating copied volume (with the NZCTU’s post “Hobbit Enabling Act” revised timeline included) .